Thursday, May 14, 2009

My department at work is located in a very old building. It used to be a hospital I hear. A few years ago, a coworker that worked on another floor pointed out something weird on the top of a massive electrical box at the end of a hallway near a stairwell - a tiny mummified mouse. It must have dropped there at some point and died of either poisoning or old age. She said that older employees told her that the mouse had been there as long as they could remember. It's pretty high up and you have to tip-toe to see that it's really a mouse - whiskers and the two front teeth are clearly visible, but it looks like a ball of dust from a distance. No decay at all. Just a fury little ancient mouse resting on its side. It's one of those things I now look for when I pass that part of the building. It's actually become a comforting notion, "He's still there."

Well, they're finally painting the hallways after probably decades of needing to. When I was approaching that area today, I saw the fresh paint on the walls and nearly panicked and sprinted to the location to check on him. I just KNEW that the mouse would never have survived the painting crew. I wonder how long it's been undisturbed. No way of knowing. But the good news is that he's STILL there. With a tiny white dot of paint on his right ear, from where the workers painted AROUND him.

Similar story...my Aunt Patty used to live in an old Victorian in a little tiny town in Southern Indiana. And in the very front of the house, there was some neato plaster detail mouldings. And in one of those mouldings was a perfect mouse-shaped negative. Apparently, the mouse had fallen into the plaster and died. After his body decayed away, the imprint of him was there. Still was, last time I went to visit.